Perseid Meteors Light up the LIGO Night
Sky

Another episode in the LIGO
Hanford - Tri-City Astronomy Club public event collaboration unfolded on
the night of August 11, 2004 as nearly 300 area residents reclined on the
LHO grounds to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower. Mother Nature
cooperated to the fullest extent, providing a warm cloudless night and a
thin waning crescent moon.

The viewing scene was eerily
festive, with families and friends grouped together on blankets or lawn
chairs or chaise lounges, chatting quietly and picnicking in near total
darkness, faces turned skyward. LHO staff member Bartie Rivera's blinking
red LED's, set out to mark the paths and viewing areas, provided local
illumination while the distant lights of Hanford and Energy Northwest
facilities glowed on the horizon.

The Perseids, named for
their apparent arrival from the constellation Perseus, fall into our
atmosphere as the earth annually intersects the debris trail left by comet
Swift-Tuttle on its 120-year journey around the Sun. The night of 8/11 and
morning of 8/12 represented the peak intensity of the shower; predicted
rates for the shower were 50 - 70 meteors per hour, and this range compared
reasonable well to counts taken by several viewers. Particularly vivid
episodes were marked by "ooh's" and "aah's" from the crowd of all ages, mixed in with
occasional notes of frustration from those who missed "the big one"
because they were looking elsewhere in the sky.

The evening's program began
at 10:00 PM with a talk on meteors by the TCAC's Dr. Roy Gephart in the
LIGO auditorium. Roy, a PNNL scientist by day and Tri-City Herald
astronomy columnist by night, has observed showers for years. His
knowledge of "shooting stars" and his obvious enthusiasm for observing
the sky primed the audience for the evening's work. The sky reached maximum
darkness during the talk, leaving the meteors and their trails nicely
visible against the haze of the Milky Way.

A couple dozen hardy viewers
were still on the job at 4:30 AM, at which time the sky began to lighten
and the songs of birds brought the event to a close. Those driving back
into town were treated to several final jets of light in the dawn sky,
prompting a farewell that is always appropriate for the Perseids: "See you
next year!"